Press Releases

Dec122013

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), upon filing the Committee’s annual Joint Economic Report for 2013, said the Obama recovery “remains disappointing and continues to shortchange Main Street and middle-class workers.”

“We’ve got to do better to grow our economy and create good, middle-class jobs,” said Brady. “More than four years after the end of the recession much of the nation has yet to experience anything resembling a normal economic recovery. Unfortunately, compared to other recoveries of the past half-century, the Obama recovery continues to scrape the bottom in virtually every economic metric. The jobs have not fully returned, growth has been anemic, and incomes on Main Street have languished.”

Findings in the annual report, required by law, reveals that since the U.S. recession ended in the 2nd-quarter 2009, real GDP has grown at an annualized rate of a mere 2.3%, far below the 4.1% annualized growth rate of real GDP in an average recovery since 1960.

That ‘growth gap’ translates into 4.4 million private jobs and $1.2 trillion in real GDP missing from the U.S. economy today.

“During the debate over the Affordable Care Act, Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee questioned its unstainable funding scheme, its long-term costs and drag on the economy, ” Brady noted. “We predicted the health care law’s damaging effects on private insurance plans that so many Americans rely upon and the law’s harmful effects on local doctors, hospitals, and the quality of health care services. Unfortunately, President Obama and congressional Democrats ignored our warnings about the ACA, and now American families, patients, and local businesses are paying the price—as is our economy.”

The report comments on international trade and competitiveness, climate change regulations, and labor market issues.